Why is the Whisky gone?
by Lakritzwolf
Summary: Sequel to "Rum or Whisky?", a story I wrote quite some time ago. Please read this first to know what this is all about.
1. Chapter 1

_Hi Folks, I'm back after all. Wouldn't have thought though, but Life is what happens when you're busy making other plans. I've found, against all expectations, time and space in my head to write again, yet chose to start with something easy, which means a sequel to a story I wrote ages ago. This may be not as good as the previous stuff I wrote because I am a bit out of practice, so go easy on me, mates!_

_The story begins roughly six months after the ending of "Rum or Whisky?", and we're still in modern-day Scotland. Why did Jack leave his hat in Frances' care?_

**Insert standard disclaimer here.**

* * *

**Glasgow, February 2007**

I hate my job.  
That was my only thought as I fell out of the plane that had brought me back home from Prague.  
I hate my job.

After having taken half of 2006 off to travel, I had come back to work facing a new boss. A very ambitious boss. She is keen, yet has not only ambitions for herself, but also for her staff. I should have been flattered, I think, when she choose me for that particular project. I was, at first.  
By now, I had been on the third conference in six month and all the new energy I had built up last summer had faded away again.  
Spring was coming, but I felt only like wilting.

This wasn't worth it, I realised as I checked in my passport. The money wasn't worth all the time I lost I could spend living, loving, laughing, or doing anything else than sitting in planes or listening to other people who loved to hear themselves talk. And to whom a proper PowerPoint presentation was a closed book.

I sighed as I set my watch back to UK time. I hated this job, and I hated my life, and I hated this country, and I wanted to get away from here, from my job, my boss, and my life.  
How about a trip to the Caribbean? I had to grin at my own thought.

And what way? I asked myself. Take a plane or go through the rabbit hole?

It took forever to claim my luggage, and by the time I finally got outside the airport, it was lunchtime. Home. I wanted to be at home, have a shower, have a drink, and go to bed, spend the Saturday and Sunday in bed and gather up some energy to tell my boss I would resign.  
I glanced at my watch again and decided I didn't care about the money any more, I wanted to be home now, not in god knows what time it took me to catch a bus and a train. I walked over to the taxi stand.  
A car slowly pulled in front of me and I opened the door, threw my bag onto the backseat and got in next to it. I couldn't see the driver's face, but I could see his particular hairstyle. He wore a bunch of dreadlocks bound together at the back of his head with a red scarf.  
I smiled at my memories and told the driver my address. He nodded and set off.

He was strangely silent, I thought. Usually, cab drivers talk until your ears bleed, but he didn't say a word. Maybe he didn't have enough English.  
I almost dozed off although it was a bright, sunny day. Leaning my head against the window, I watched the road markings flush by and tried to imagine myself stepping onto a plane to the Caribbean with no return ticket.  
The engine stopped, and I blinked and straightened up. "Are we there already?"  
"Indeed we are, darling", he said, and while I was annoyed about his words, something struck me as odd about his voice. For the first time, I looked at his face, and he looked at me at the same time.

Then he slowly tweaked his small, black, round sunglasses down towards the end of his nose and winked at me.

My brain literally stopped working for a few seconds as I stared into these familiar, brown eyes.  
"D'ye need help with yer luggage, luv?", he asked then, and I forced my mouth into action.  
"Jack", I said, faltering, nothing else would come out. He grinned and got out of the car, walked around and opened my door with a flourish.  
"That's me name", he said with a grin, and I slowly managed to unfold myself, mentally and physically, and got out of the car. He reached past me to grab my suitcase as I was still staring at him.

Another synapse sprung into life. "A... a cab driver?"  
He grinned again and shouldered my suitcase. "As close to piracy as ye get, luv. I quite enjoy it."  
Shaking my head, and with trembling hands, I fingered my keys out of my handbag and unlocked the door. He followed me up the stairs into my flat and dropped of the suitcase. "I tell ye what", he said. "I'll charge ye special rate, for special friends. Which means, nothing. But how about a little tip, aye?"

"What kind of tip did you…", I began, but before I could finish that sentence, his arms were around me, his hands in my hair, and his lips on mine. Baffled as much at his behaviour as my own reaction to it, which was leaning into him, I could do nothing else than kiss him in return.

When he leaned back, I gasped for air and my brain, probably flushed clear by the sudden increase in oxygen due to my increased heart rate, started working again.  
I slapped him.  
"That wasn't called for", he muttered, but with a glint in his eyes.

But suddenly, I felt grinning beyond me.  
"You lying, dirty, tricking bastard", I said. "To think I actually started believing all that bullshit just because you have charming eyes and a sense for dressing up!"  
He took a step back and blinked, and I went on, falling into a fit of rage.  
"You dirty, lying, dickhead!", I screamed at him. "Why did ye have to that?!"  
"What?" He asked that so gently that it brought me short. I crossed my arms and took a deep breath, feeling rather shaky.  
"Lie", I said. "Man, the way you look you could have gotten me into bed without pretending to be someone coming out of a fairy tale."  
"Well, I'm charmed, I guess", he said, giving me a queer look. "But I still don't know what ye're on about, luv."  
"What's your name?", I said. "Your real name. No bullshit. No movie characters. Your name."  
"Jack", he said, looking irritated. "Jack Sparrow."  
"Yep, and I am Elizabeth Turner."  
He gave me a very odd look I couldn't identify. I didn't care, anyway.  
"Pull the other one, it's got bells on, Jack." Then I sighed in exasperation. "Pirate, yes? What were you, afraid or too proud to admit you're a cab driver?"  
I stared at him in fury, feeling utterly betrayed. He stared back at me, and suddenly, something dawned in his eyes that I could call understanding, but choose to call confession.  
"Luv", he said. "I didn't lie. Only, in the state ye're in, how can I make ye believe me?"  
I took another step back. "That you are from the seventeenth century?"  
He shrugged. "Maybe a pistol ball in me leg?"

I swallowed and felt myself falter a little. He had, hadn't he? I had cut it out myself, with my own hands and pen knife. I shuddered.  
He gave me a long, thoughtful stare over the rim of his sunglasses, then sighed and pulled his t-shirt out of his jeans. Despite myself, I had to admit he looked hot in them, they made his lovely, tight arse… stop that, I scolded myself.  
But I couldn't, since he just took off his shirt in my presence. Trying to get my thoughts off that particular topic while unable to take my eyes off him, I asked "Since when do you have a nipple piercing?"

He looked down at himself and grinned. "Two months or so. Looks pretty smart, aye?"  
I shook my head, as much about his words as my own feelings. Then his face grew serious again.  
"Frances, luv", he said. "I meant it. Look at me."  
Then he slowly turned around.

I hadn't been prepared for that. I had been in bed with him, but only two times, and had not necessary had to look at his back. I had felt some scars, but had thought nothing more about it. But to see them almost made me throw up.  
His back was criss-crossed with white, pinkish and reddish lines, overlapping each other in knotty welts. I had never seen something like that before, but being a person of moderate education, I knew instantly what it was.  
And that you didn't get scars like these anywhere in the developed world today. He had been flogged repeatedly. I had to sit down on my sofa, gasping for air.  
He looked down at me, raising an eyebrow at my reaction. I shook, and the tiredness I had been carrying around with me for weeks, and the stressful journey to Prague and back took their toll on me. I started to cry and could not stop it.

I buried my face in my hands and heard his steps, then felt him sit down next to me.  
"Frances, luv", he said, putting an arm around me and pulling me close. "Sorry, darling. Didn't mean to upset you."  
I could only shake my head, but leaned into his embrace. He held me close for a while and let me sob, until I finally managed to get a grip on me again.  
I straightened up and fiddled a tissue out of my pocket. "Sorry", I said after I had blown my nose. "Sorry, Jack. I…"  
"It's all right", he said simply. And it was, somehow. He seemed to understand that I had been doubting him, and seemed to forgive me all these horrible names I had called him.

I swallowed and looked at him. He gave me a smile, and I managed to smile at him in return.  
"Why are you here?", I asked then, and he shrugged.  
"I… Well, I did lie. I wanted to get back, but not so soon. I wanted to… stay a while longer. I just walked away."  
"Why did you do that?", I said.  
"Because I didn't want to upset yer life, luv. I was a burden to ye, be honest."  
"No", I said. "Not really. But I see what you mean."

We were silent for a while, until I realised that the giddy feeling I had was caused by one of his hands gently stroking the back of my neck.  
"I meant to go back", he said again.  
"But why did you leave your hat?", I asked, leaning back into the sofa and his embrace. He leaned across me with a smile. He was still bare-chested, and I started toying idly with his nipple ring. He winced and closed his eyes.  
"Because I meant to come back to ye, luv."  
"Did you?"  
"Aye. D'ye think I'd really leave me hat behind?"  
"No", I said with a grin, and he kissed me again.

*** * * *  
**

A couple of weeks later we were back at the coast of Scotland again.  
I must say, I had my doubts. I thought about friends, and family, and other things like plumbing, electricity and dentistry.  
But here I stood, hand in hand with Jack, dressed up in things I had bought at costume outfitters and in antiquity shops.

We looked down into the gully, and I was suddenly too scared to move.  
He must have sensed this, for he took my shoulders and gently turned me around to face him.  
"Ye don't have to, luv."  
"But I want to."  
"You don't make the impression of wanting to, luv."  
"I'm just afraid."

He looked at me, intensely, and then took off his sunglasses, stowing them away in a pocket. No matter what he could leave behind, he couldn't be parted from them any more. I had to smile.  
Then he put a finger under my chin and lifted my head, forcing me to look at him, and I stopped smiling under that intense stare out of these warm, brown, enticing eyes. I swallowed.

"Do ye really want to?", he asked me again, and I could only nod.  
"Curse me for a fool", I said then after a few moments, and he chuckled.  
"Oh no, I won't", he replied and kissed me again. It was a wild, passionate, almost ferocious kiss, and it made me almost melt into his arms.

When he smiled at me again, I was still scared sick, but more determined. He nodded a he saw it in my eyes, smiled, patted my cheek and took my hand.  
"Ready?"  
I took a deep breath and nodded.

Then we jumped.


	2. Chapter 2

**White Shark's Bay, Isla de Muerta, 1765**

The low droning sound in my head almost made me scream. My head hurt viciously, as did the rest of my body, and I couldn't remember having drunk so much that I did deserve a hangover like that.

Then a few other sensations came to my awareness. I was lying flat on my belly and was soaking wet. Under me was hard rock, sharp edged and chillingly cold.  
And the sound… sloshing and… waves?  
_My god, I'm still at the coast and have fallen down the cliff_, I thought. _But the good thing is, Prague was a bad dream, as well._

The realisation of having sand between my teeth made me finally able to move and I managed to turn onto my back with a groan. That groan turned almost instantly into a scream when I saw the dark recesses of a large cave around me.  
I shot upright, spitting out gravel, and had a look around. Black rock under me, water lapping at my feet and all around me was clutter; gold, pearls, statues, coins and chests with god knows what inside.  
„Oh holy shit", I murmured and laboured to my feet. Looking around, I saw, a bit to my right, the entrance into a side cave much bigger than the one I was currently in and then dimly remembered that this must be the cave where…  
I remembered, all of a sudden. We had jumped into the gully. Jack had held on tightly to my hand, but the current, once we had dived sideways into a broadening cave, had been so strong that he had lost his grip. He had been washed away out of my sight in an instant.

I remembered the low droning noise and the sudden panic…And then, only then, it dawned on me that I was alone.  
„Jack?", I called. Nothing. „Jack?!" My voice echoed strangely in the empty cave. „JACK!!" I screamed, yet no one answered me. I slumped down onto the rocks again and tried to resist the urge to wail and cry. That wouldn't get me anywhere. I looked up where a little bit of light filtered in through a few cracks in the rock. The light was dim and had a silvery-blue sheen. _Moonlight_, I thought. _It's in the middle of the night! _How long had I been unconscious?_  
_

There were several choices. One was staying here, hoping he would find me. One was walking around to see if he had been swept ashore, as well. The third choice was the coward's choice, and that was diving into the cave again and just go back home. But somehow… I couldn't do it. Not yet, at least. At least, I had to try and find Jack.

After walking around the caves for what I guessed was half an hour, I climbed another rocky outcrop that was reaching into the shallow sea. The waves washed over the rocks and I could hear seagulls wail. I had found the entrance, or exit, to the cave, but what now? I sat down on the topmost rock to take a break and think. If I was here, I thought, Jack had to be here as well. Somewhere. But I had neither seen nor heard the slightest trace of any human being apart from myself. A very ugly thought began to rise up in my mind. What if he had been washed against a wall in the cave and knocked unconscious? He would have drowned, and I would never find him.

"He's Jack Sparrow", I said to myself, to make that ugly thought go away. "He's Jack Sparrow, and he doesn't drown just like that! He's bloody Jack frigging Sparrow and he doesn't...." I broke off in midsentence and jumped to my feet. Something was drifting in the water at my feet, something black and triangular.  
I jumped down the rocks, landed knee-deep in the water and picked up his hat. "Oh god, Jack...", I sighed. "What now?"  
Gritting my teeth and clenching the hat between my fingers, I slowly walked back into the cave again, trying not to panic. But then I heard male voice, humming softly, and I almost shrieked with joy and relief as I ran off into the direction he humming was coming from. And sure, after a couple of steps, I rounded another rock and there he sat, staring out at the sea.

"Jack!", I called, and he jumped up, grinning.  
"Frances me darling", he said with a glittering smile. "I see ye found me hat."  
"I am even gladder I found you", I said when I reached him and handed him his most important piece of wardrobe.  
His grin broadened. "So Frances, what do ye say?"  
"To what?"  
He spread his arms out, indicating towards the sea on one side and the cave to the other. "This."  
"Well", I said. I hadn't really had time to contemplate my surroundings yet, due to the fact that I thought I had lost Jack. But then Jack, with a grin far too smug for my taste, reached into a pocket of his and produced a bottle of Woods 100.  
"Rum", I said. "Where'd ye get that from?"  
"Bought it at Tesco's", he replied with a roguish smile as he handed me the bottle, and I had to laugh.  
"Welcome to the Caribbean, luv", he said as I took a sip.  
I handed him the bottle back and he took a healthy gulp. "Welcome to the Caribbean", he said again. "Welcome to my world, where things happen my way!"  
He took another, very healthy gulp out of his bottle and grinned at me as he offered me the bottle again. Then he froze, together with the grin on his face.  
I froze too, when I saw the mouth of a pistol peeking from behind a rock beside him, almost touching his left temple.

I swallowed when I recognized the face coming into view.

"Fancy that Mr. Sparrow", Norrington said. "Escape from the Navy Vessel only to be caught in a cave where you came from before you came aboard. I wonder what your plans are this time."  
I saw Jack, in his own way both trying to be inconspicuous and frantic at the same time, try to wave me aside, as Norrington in the darkness hadn't seen me yet. I cautiously stepped behind the rock again and went into a crouch.  
"What is it ye want, Commodore?", Jack said, sounding almost bored.  
"To rid the seas of the most notorious criminals that ever sailed her waves, Mr. Sparrow. You will follow me and my men now."

I didn't hear Jack reply, and as I listened to the steps of several men receding into the caves, I wondered about my course of action. Barely arrived, I had already once almost pissed myself in fear. Bad idea, bad idea, bad idea, a part of my brain screamed at me. Shutting it up with a deep breath, summoning all the nerves I had left, I cautiously followed the men, but could do nothing as I watched them load Jack into a boat and row him aboard the Dauntless.

I was stranded.

Alone on the Isla de Muerta.

And there was only one way for me to get away from this god forsaken rock. I slowly turned around and looked into the gloomy darkness behind me.  
Back into the rabbit hole, leaving Jack to his own fate.

I sighed and kicked a little stone into the water, but the splashing sound that made was far louder than it should have been. I looked up again and saw a rowing boat heading for the cave's entrance. Hastily crouching behind another rock again I watched the little boat being rowed ashore. Three men disembarked. I held my breath.

"Jack?"  
My breath exploded.  
"Captain?"  
I got up. "Mr Gibbs", I said.  
He stopped and pulled out a pistol and I threw up my hands. "Don't shoot me! The Navy's taken him! He's on the Dauntless!"  
The three men turned their heads and watched the Dauntless, already under full sail, shrinking at the horizon. Then Gibbs looked back at me, pistol still cocked and primed. The second time in one hour that I almost pissed myself. I began asking myself what had possessed me coming here.  
"Who are you?", he asked.  
"Me name's Frances", I said. "Jack... er... he rescued me in the cave here."  
Gibbs furrowed his brows. "Did he now."  
"I can't prove it", I said. But then, maybe I could. I slowly took a few steps towards Gibbs and even more slowly extended my left arm, showing him my wrist.  
He frowned.  
"The bracelet", I said.  
Gibbs gestured to one of the men without taking the pistol down, and the man in question (Cotton, as I realized), took my wrist, removed the bracelet and handed it to Gibbs. He took it without taking his eyes from me and after a few seconds, took a step back and looked at the dreadlock in his hands. He frowned. He blinked. Then his eyes grew wide, and then he slowly cocked his head and looked at me again.

"Ye're not a Cabin boy."  
I shrugged with a sheepish grin.  
"Are ye one of Barbossa's Crew then?"  
"No", I said. "Look. If I told ye where I came from ye wouldn't believe me anyway, so let's just stick to the fact that Jack picked me up somewhere and I tagged along." I tried to grin. "Savvy?"  
Gibbs shook his head with an exasperated sigh. "The last thing the world needs is another one of that kind." Then he grinned hesitatingly. "Well, let's get aboard. Maybe there's a chance of getting the Captain back."  
I was taken into the boat and aboard, and Gibbs told the crew that they already had one woman on board, and that bad luck was bad luck, youn either had it or not, and it couldn't multiply. I secretly wondered if he was right with that last statement.  
"And besides", he said, "Besides, she's got a charm of Jack's. So that counters the bad luck. Get going lads."  
I was given some funny looks, but chose to ignore them as I slowly walked forward to the bow, contemplating my situation.

Technically, I felt I knew what was going to happen. What _should_ happen. But Norrington coming to arrest Jack in the cave was nothing I knew about.  
What would happen now? Would I alter everything? Would I be able to prevent things? Or was my arrival the only variable in the whole story? I was afraid, I admit it. A part of me told me that I should have gone back into the cave and back home. I answered that I shouldn't have come here in the first place.  
Well, I would see what the future would bring me here, in what was also past. And unreal.  
Unreal.  
I felt the wind in my face as the Black Pearl took up speed. I tasted salt on my lips.

And as I thought about Jack coming back aboard, as might just happen, I had to smile. And suddenly my fear was all gone, and I felt alive, so alive, as I hadn't felt before in a long, long time.  
I had no clue if I would be able to be a 17th, 18th century pirate. But I knew I was well damn going to try.

_We're coming, Jack. You are not going to hang in Port Royal, and we are coming for you  
_

"Yo, ho ho", I whispered under my breath. "A pirate's life for me."

*** * * *  
**

"Captain", Anamaria said. "The Black Pearl is yours."

And Jack slowly strode towards the wheel and took it, caressing the spokes like the hands of a long lost lover. I watched him with a racing heart.  
He looked at his compass, and slowly turned the wheel a bit.

Then he slowly reached into a pocket, took out the small, black, round sunglasses, put them on with an elegant flourish and shoved them up on his nose with a practised tweak.

"Now", he said, taking the spokes again. "Bring me that horizon."

Then he looked at me, standing beside the mast, and realized I had mouthed the words along with him. He lifted one eyebrow, but smiled his roguish smile at me and shut his compass with a clack.


	3. Chapter 3

Author's note: The song further down came to my attention on the CD "Rogue's Gallery", produced by Gore Verbinsky and Jonny Depp. (Kinda familiar, those names, ain't?)**  


* * *

  
Tia Dalma's Shack, after the worst had come to pass.**

It was all falling into place.  
I knew, I had known all along, what was going to happen, and had seen some of it happen already.  
Although it had been great fun at first, taking a holiday in the Caribbean of the past, it turned out to be a minor nightmare after not so long a time. During those first weeks I could happily ignore the fact that dread things were going to happen, and I had almost forgotten Dave Jones and his curse. So had Jack, and he was no less taken aback than I when old Bootstrap had come to deliver that message. The Black Spot.  
And I told Jack not to panic. I told him everything would be all right in the end. But he didn't listen, and even when I tried to stop him doing the things that brought his doom upon him, he did precisely those.

I slowly began to realise that even while I was here, talking to people, listening to them, (I had, in fact, tried to convince the Crew that they should stock lemons and keep sucking lemon slices to keep the scurvy at bay. While I had done so, I could not possibly had overheard Pintel's sniggering voice muttering under his breath he had rather have me suck something else. I had dropped the lemon slice I had been sucking at for demonstrational purposes, to show lemons were not poisonous, had swaggered over to him, wiped my mouth and said: "Go on then, down with your pants. But have a wash first, I take'em only clean." The whole crew had broken out in howling and jeering glee and Pintel, after a serious amount of blushing, had muttered something about women and ships and had, from then on, steered well clear of me. ), that I could not change the unfolding events. Things I knew would happen would happen no matter what I tried to avoid them. So I had kept my mouth shut and tried to remind me all the time that it would go well.

But I tell you, I became filled with a nervous dread. I didn't try to do anything anymore; I belayed every attempt to change things. What for? They would happen anyway. I tried to forget that I knew. Sometimes even with success...

That evening in Tortuga, I still had to smile at the memory, although those memories were a bit overshadowed by more recent events. We had been sitting in a tavern and listened to three musicians. (For a given value of. It is open to debate of three drunken pirates with old and battered instruments can be called musicians.)

_One man played a fiddle, one an accordion, and the third a flute. They were not bad, a bit out of tune, and a bit drunk, just like you'd expect in a pirate tavern. They were singing a song I didn't know, but it was quite bawdy._

_"What kinda songs do they sing where you come from, missie?" Pintel asked me suddenly.  
"Oh, all sorts of songs, I replied. "Why?"  
"C'm on, sing us a song", he said.  
"Sing us a song", Ragetti added with a terrible grin. (I wondered, again, if there was any other way he could grin. But probably not.)  
"Well, I replied. "Let's see..." And I thought. What kind of song would pirates like the lot here like? I realized Jack was looking at me and returned the look, yet I could read nothing in his face, only mild amusement in his eyes._

_I cleared my throat and walked over to the musicians as they paused to have a drink._

_They looked at me expectantly.  
"Do ye know "The Good Ship Venus?", I asked.  
"Never 'eard of 'er", the fiddler replied with a puzzled look.  
"It's not a ship, it's a song", I gave back."You don't know it?"  
Three heads were shaken in unison.  
"It's simple. It goes like this..." And I hummed the melody. I remembered this one from a CD back home, a sailor's song from the 18__th__ century. It's the most dirty, filthy, bawdy song I'd ever heard.  
"It is simple", the one with the flute said. "What about the words?"  
"Tell ye what", I said. "Youse guys play, and I sing. What about it?"  
They grinned. "Let's go missie", the fiddler said._

_I had always prided me on my singing voice. But never before had I had the chance to sing a bawdy song, not in front of a couple of friends but a tavern full of drunken sailors and pirates. The effect of my song was hilarious. Some choked on their ale with the first few lines.  
A few others howled in delight.  
And there were some, even, who knew the song and sang along._

_"'Twas on the good ship Venus,  
By Christ you should have seen us,  
The figurehead was a whore in bed,  
Sucking a dead man's penis."_

_I winked at Pintel who stared at me in open-mouthed awe._

_"The Captain of that lugger,  
By Christ, he was a bugger,  
He wasn't fit to shovel shit,  
From one ship to another."_

_Ragetti grinned and elbowed Jack, who in turn, didn't move a muscle in his face. Ragetti swallowed, and then hastily looked away again, trying not to grin anymore._

_A few men got up and started to dance._

_"The first mate's name was Morgan,  
By god he was a Gorgon,  
A dozen crows in a row could pose,  
Upon his mighty organ. "_

_"The Second Mate was Carter,  
By God, he was a farter,  
When the wind wouldn't blow and the ship wouldn't go,  
We'd get his arse to start her."_

_I must admit I enjoyed myself extremely. I winked at Jack who, by now, seemed to have trouble to control his facial muscles and keep them still._

_"The Captain's wife was Charlotte  
Was born and bred a harlot  
At night her thighs were lily-white  
By morning they were scarlet."_

_I was sure I saw him flash a grin for a second. At a table before me, a man slipped from his chair while laughing so hard his face was wet with tears. Pirates, I thought. The dirtier it is, the more they laugh. And I moved on to the filthier verses. (I spare the reader those, afterwards, I was surprised at myself at how easy it was to forget all feelings of shame.)_

_"I am shocked, my dear Frances", Jack said to me, his face stiff as a priest's, when I sat back down at the table. Ragetti was still grinning, Pintel sniggered into his mug and Cotton was still tapping the rhythm with his feet and whistling.  
"What about?", I replied and took a sip out of my own mug.  
"That you know such a song." His face twitched, as if he had an itch on his nose. "That you know such words. A lady like you."  
"You forget one important thing, Captain Jack Sparrow", I gave back, grinning at him across my mug."  
"Aye? And that being?"  
"I'm not a lady", I replied, and everyone around me at the table erupted into a laugh.  
Jack stared at me, then a slow, roguish grin spread on his lips. His eyes glittered as he said: "Indeed not, Frances, luv. I can see that."  
I returned the look with a small, smile of my own. The inn had rooms, hadn't it? And yet, even as I thought so, having successfully forgotten the dreadful events yet to come, I saw someone stagger up to our table._

_It was ex-Admiral Norrington._

My mind swung back into the present, and the smile on my lips lingered for a few seconds more before I remembered where I was and why I was here.  
We were in Tia Dalma's hut.

I stared at my hands. I had tried it, one last time, a desperate attempt to change things. I had begged Jack, in the heat of everything, amidst the battle, not to kiss Elizabeth. He had given me one of his funny looks again.

_"Why on earth d'ye think she would think of kissing me?"  
"Please, don't kiss her!", I screamed again, and then a tentacle as huge as a walrus and countless times as long knocked my legs away under me and grabbed my ankles. I screamed, this time only in horror, as the tentacle pulled my towards the railing, and yet before I reached my certain doom, the pressure suddenly was gone. I struggled to get on my feet again and saw Ragetti stand there with an axe in his hand, having hacked off the tentacle that had grabbed me. I slapped his shoulders, picked up my weapon again (Jack had given me some lessons in sword fighting, and while far from good, I was at least able to defend myself a bit. Not against a giant kraken, though.) and looked for Jack. He was nowhere to be seen._

I could hear Tia re-enter the room, carrying a small trencher with mugs on. It had been of no use. In the heat of the moment, Jack had simply forgotten my warning, or chosen to ignore it. Because what had happened had been meant to happen.

Yet even though I knew it would be undone, I could hardly watch it, the kraken dragging him to his grave. And I had wept into Mr Gibbs broad shoulder in the little boat as we left the sinking ship to her doom. Wept like a little child. I still had red and itchy eyes, and I didn't look up as Tia offered me a mug.  
"Drink", she said. "It helps."  
I looked up and took a mug, and saw her eyes narrow. She looked at me in a way I found uncomfortable, and she looked at me far longer than I could stand. I lowered my eyes again, and she straightened up and continued offering her drinks.

* * * *

Later that night, almost morning again as it was, she came back to me. She found me outside, sitting with my back to the wall of her hut, staring into the darkness. She silently sat down next to me.  
I didn't say anything, and after a long while, she spoke.  
"You have seen things no other mortal has seen."  
I cast her a cautious look. I knew who she was, who she had been, and who she would become again. Did she know?  
"You also know more things than any other mortal man", she went on. In the darkness, her eyes were pools of unfathomable depth.  
"You know who I be", she said softly.  
"Yes", was all I dared to reply.  
"You do not belong here", she said after a while, and I felt gooseflesh all over my body.  
"No", I whispered.  
"Your presence is a great disturbance. "  
"So far, I could not disturb a single event", I whispered back and wiped my eyes again. I could not ban the memory of the kraken dragging ship and captain to a terrible fate.  
"So you know what course things should take, as you were unable to change them?" Did she smile?  
I swallowed. "I do", I said. "So far, everything I knew was right."  
"So far", the women beside me replied in a husky voice. "And yet, the path I saw clear before me is partly shrouded in darkness again."  
"Is it my fault?", I dared ask after a while.  
"It may be, may not be", was the answer. "I think it is."  
We both were silent for a while.

Then she got up again, laid a hand on my shoulder and looked deeply into my eyes. "Do not be afraid," she said and left me.  
And as I watched her go, I couldn't decide if that last statement calmed me...

...or made me more afraid than I'd ever been before in my life.


	4. Chapter 4

**Shipwreck Cove, before the final battle  
**

I was petrified.  
Frozen solid by fear.  
What the hell was I supposed to do? What the hell had possessed me ever coming here? Ever following Jack Sparrow back into a world I had no place in, no purpose in, and... I looked around, into the faces staring at me. And now, no chance of ever coming back home. I had known it might come to that, that I never would see that world again, never have a hot shower, a good read in bed with the radio on, never see my friends again.  
But knowing it now was almost more than I could bear. I would die, here, now, today, with everyone around me.

And everything had looked so easy, back then on our way to the locker. Easy for me, at least, because I "knew" what was going to happen. I had to grin sadly at my own memories.

_It was painfully, painfully cold. Even knowing what I would face, and having prepared myself for it, I had never, ever in my life been so cold before. I had acquired some lambskins and wrapped those around my legs, and still I couldn't feel my feet anymore. I was also wrapped in two woollen blankets, and yet I froze, my god, I froze so much my teeth hurt from clattering.  
And still, as we were gliding silently through the icy waters towards the world's end, the worst bit was not the actual cold. It was the silence.  
The silence was so heavy it swallowed any sounds, and it was the silence that, together with the cold, made me feel as if I was dead already. And looking around I could see, mirrored in many faces, that I wasn't the only one feeling like that._

_I tried to fight the fear. I wasn't dead, and whatever would happen, we would come back safely into the warmth, the sun, the light. Hugging my blankets closer around my shoulders, I slowly walked to bow of the ship and stared into the nearly non-existing bow wave. The numbing cold and the heavy silence were yet another blanket around me, and I tried to shed them. As I was staring into the waves a song came to my mind, a sailor's song, and I hummed the melody. It seemed fitting to what I felt, and I started to sing softly. But in the silence that hung over the ship, my soft singing might have been heard by anyone even down in the bilge._

_"Heel ye ho boys, let her go boys  
Heave her head 'round into the weather  
Heel ye ho boys, let her go boys  
Sailing homeward to Mingulay"_

_"What care we how wild the Minch is  
What care we for, boys for wind and weather  
Let her go, boys, every inch is  
Wearing homeward to Mingulay"_

_My voice, even though it was fighting so fruitlessly against the silence, sounded to me like a beacon of hope and light. No one had dared to disturb the silence, but I bloody well dared now! I took another deep breath of air so cold it almost scathed my lungs. I didn't care._

_"Heel ye ho boys, let her go boys  
Heave her head 'round into the weather  
Heel ye ho boys, let her go boys  
Sailing homeward to Mingulay"_

_I heard cautious steps coming up to me, yet I didn't look. I felt more than I saw that two men stopped hesitatingly a few steps behind me, maybe to better listen to my song, maybe to tell me any second to shut the bloody hell up. But they didn't say a word. They just listened._

_"Wives are waiting, 'mongst the buirheads  
Gazing seaward from the heather  
__Heave her head round__, and we'll wander  
'Ere the sun sets on Mingulay"_

_"Heel ye ho boys, let her go boys  
Heave her head 'round into the weather  
Heel ye ho boys, let her go boys  
Sailing homeward to Mingulay"_

_I pulled my blankets together yet more tightly, and slowly turned to look at my two silent listeners. And looked into the faces of Pintel and Ragetti. The latter rubbed his eye, but not the wooden one, the healthy eye. Both looked as if they would start to weep any moment, and I remembered what I had read about olden day sailors in my own time. And all those songs about homesickness, longing, regret and loss were not composed by sailors for nothing. Living your whole life in loneliness, being at the mercy of the most merciless entity on the world, no wonder that people like that wrote songs like that. Never knowing if they would ever set foot on home soil again._

_"That was a beautiful song", Ragetti said and tried to grin.  
I tried to smile. "Thanks", I said.  
"What's Mingulay?", Pintel asked and I bit my lower lip.  
"Mingulay is a Scottish Island."  
"Never 'eard of 'er", he replied.  
"It's a small Island", I gave back. "Very small." More I didn't know about Mingulay. Only that it was depopulated since 1912, and the song written 1918. And only due to the fact I knew the song did I know that Mingulay existed.  
"You sing very nice", Ragetti sad again.  
"Thank you", I said again and turned around again to stare into the bow wave. They didn't say anymore, but I had the feeling that my standing had just risen in their eyes._

I found them again, the two, looking at me like everyone else on the ship. And still, I didn't know what to do. Singing a song wouldn't help me or anyone.  
Gritting my teeth, I tried to think faster. To think that actually due to their almost reverential attitude towards me, Sao Feng had thought I was Calypso! Never, not in my wildest dreams, would I have been able to think something like that up. But here I was, and suddenly I remembered Tia Dalma's words to me, back in her shack, when I still thought I was only a bystander, a watching eye and naught more.  
"Do not be afraid", had she said to me. But afraid I was.

_"This is wrong, Jack! It's wrong!" I ran after him as he made his way to the Brethren Court. "It's wrong!" But only as I grabbed his sleeve did he stop to look at me.  
"What is so wrong that you scream at me in such a way, my dear Frances?", he asked me.  
"It's wrong", I said again. "It shouldn't be me, and you know that!"  
"No, I don't know anything. You are the one who supposedly knows it all." He crossed his arms and looked at me with a frown.  
I swallowed and considered what I should say next. I chose the plain truth. "It shouldn't be me. It should be Elizabeth wearing that token and these... clothes." I looked helplessly down at myself and back at Jack. "It's..."  
"Lizzie??" He stared at me and almost laughed. "Lizzie? Elizabeth Swann, the governor's daughter betrothed to a blacksmith, she's supposed to be a pirate Lord and attending the court?"  
"Well.. I... I couldn't..." I took a deep breath. "I know it may sound ridiculous, but you know I don't belong here. You of all people know that I don't have a role to play here!"  
"Do I?", he asked me and took my arm. "My dear Frances, don't you think there must be a purpose to you being here? That at one point, the course of events you knew had to change in favour of something else?"  
"But I can't lead a..." and I felt a cold fist knock me in the stomach and broke off. And then I saw Jack stare at me, and his face turned into a cool mask of calculation.  
"Can't you now?", he said slowly.  
"God, Jack I..."_

_But he didn't let me finish. He just took my arm into the crook of his and led me, and I could do nothing but follow him. Now I was caught in the events like a fish in a net, like a spider in a cobweb, and all I could to was try and not struggle to break free, as that would only worsen my situation.  
Do not be afraid, I thought and sneered inwardly. Of course I wasn't afraid._

_I was scared shitless.  
_

_*** * * ***_

And here I was, still scared shitless.  
And everyone was still looking at me, waiting for me to say something, do something, save them. I looked at Jack, and I felt like killing him in the first place. But I didn't, he would be needed elsewhere later (If there was still anything reliable about the events as I remembered them).

But what the hell should I do? I vaguely remembered the speech, and I felt I should make one, too. A speech that would make them believe in their strength. Make them believe in themselves. In that we would win. _Something that ends with "Hoist the colours",_ I thought wryly.  
And I took a deep breath.

"I look around me, and I see it in your faces, I see it on your eyes. The question: Will I die today?"  
I took another deep breath. I wasn't good at this...  
..but I had to try! I goddamn had to try! There was no one else but me!

"No one can answer that question. No one knows when they are going to die. We are going to war. And in a war, people die. But that is not the issue here." I looked around.  
"No?", Gibbs asked cautiously.  
"No", I replied. "Because we all know people are dying in wars. But he question we must ask ourselves is not: Am I going to die in the fight? but: Am I going to die if I do NOT fight? And the answer to that is pretty clear."  
I swung myself up onto the railing, holding onto a rope, and raised my voice

"We can run, or we can fight. We can try to hide, but in the end, they will find us. They will not rest until they have killed the very last of us. There is no escape. There is only one way: To win.  
We don't have a choice but to win. And there's a saying that goes fortune favours the brave. Are those men we fight against brave? We don't know. We know they're paid soldiers. What have they got to win or to lose? But we, what have we to lose? Our lives, our loves, our freedom! Will we let them take everything away from us? Or will we win, so we can remain? We have to be brave today, my friends, so fortune can favour us! And the other ships, they still look to us, expecting us to lead the attack. What will they see? Will they see meek and scared men who go into the fight like sheep to the slaughterhouse? Or will they see free men, free pirates, fighting for their lives and freedom?"

I was screaming now, almost in a trance.

"You want to be free? Well, no one is going to give you your freedom willingly! You have to fight for it! Fight for everything you love, everything you are, everything you want to be! Fight for your lives! Fight for your future! And fight for your freedom!"  
And I saw them, staring at me in awe, and I realised that for whatever reason, it had worked.

"HOIST THE COLOURS!!"

And their screams answered me, and the flag was hoisted, and it was joined by several others on the other ships. Hoist the colours, I had screamed, and hoist their colours, they did.  
And as I unsheathed my sabre I discovered that I almost believed myself. I grinned into the wind as I thought _Well, maybe I am not going to die today._

*** * * ***

It hurt like fire in my arm, and the clumsy bandage didn't help. But here I was, alive and free, together with everyone around me. Well, almost everyone. The Flying Dutchman had a new Captain, and if that meant Will was now dead or alive or neither or both, who could say that? But I was alive, Jack was alive, Gibbs and Marty and Cotton and Anamaria, all of us were alive, yes, Pintel and Ragetti, I admit I had fiercely hugged them after the fight, they too were alive.

And now?  
I had been Queen for the day. I had saved them all. Or so. But what had actually been my doing, and what had been fated? Would it have mattered if I had said different things in my speech? I couldn't say, no one could. Maybe there was one, but she was beyond answering any questions now, as she was no longer in a form any human being dared to ask something of.  
But I felt that now, I had achieved what I could. More I could not do.

And as Jack walked up to me and stood beside me, following my eyes with his into the bow wave, I said: "I think I want to go home now, Jack."  
Jack gave me a long, long look. I tried to read in his eyes what he felt, but they were as blank as the sea on a wind still day, and twice as fathomless.  
"Do ye, now", he said. "Well, I'd better give order to drop canvass then."

I watched him go to the helm. I would miss him. I would miss him terribly. And that was precisely the reason, I suddenly realised, why I felt I had to go. What woman could ever hold on to a man such as him? And not being able to seemed less terrible when he was not within reach, but a thousand miles and a dreamworld away from me.


	5. Chapter 5

Author's note: This story ends here, and thanks for being with me. To any old fans out there: Check out my profile, there's a poll there.  
_Lyrics in this chapter by Led Zeppelin._

* * *

**Isla de Muerta, a few months later  
**  
The dark rocks were looming on the horizon, coming closer like a promise of doom. I watched them come closer while standing at the bow of the Pearl, still not knowing if I was making the right decision. But what other way was there? I couldn't stay. I would not be a useless appendix, a sort of decorative, animated figurehead singing nice songs to cheer up the crew. I still couldn't fight properly, and wasn't sure that at my age, I would get much better. Being in real fights is not really the best way to practise and get better. All it is is a good chance to get yourself killed. And while I was getting better at sailing, I still felt useless and superfluous.

_There's a lady who's sure  
All that glitters is gold  
And she's buying a stairway to heaven.  
When she gets there she knows  
If the stores are all closed  
With a word she can get what she came for.  
And she's buying a stairway to heaven.  
_  
And Jack...  
Jack hadn't touched me once ever since he had dragged me into the Brethren Court. He was the reason I was here. And if he now had decided I wasn't interesting enough anymore, if he had decided he had enough of me, than there was no reason for me to stay anymore. He hadn't tried, with one single word, to talk me out of going home. And that made me believe all the stronger it was time to go.

_There's a sign on the wall  
But she wants to be sure  
'Cause you know sometimes words have two meanings.  
In a tree by the brook  
There's a songbird who sings,  
Sometimes all of our thoughts are misgiven.  
It makes me wonder,  
Oh, it makes me wonder.  
_  
And yet, as I stared at the Isla de Muerta before us, I felt reluctant to go. I felt as if, in this time, in this world, I had found a life that seemed so much more pleasurable, so much more enjoyable, so much more like _life_ than my old one that I could not really let go of it. Going now would mean these memories of wind, of sea, of rain, of thunderstorms, and yes, of smoke and powder and fighting too, these memories would haunt me for the rest of my life.

_There's a feeling I get  
When I look to the west,  
And my spirit is crying for leaving.  
In my thoughts I have seen  
Rings of smoke through the trees,  
And the voices of those who stand looking.  
It makes me wonder,  
Oh, it really makes me wonder._

Maybe I should save us an embarrassed goodbye as well, I thought, and thought about jumping over the railing and swimming the few hundred yards towards the island. But even as I tightened my grip on the railing and attempted to lift my left leg I heard Jack's voice behind me.  
"I wouldn't do that, darling. There's sharks in them waters here."  
I straightened up and turned around to face him. He wasn't grinning, he just looked at me very solemnly. I shrugged.  
"Are ye in such a hurry to leave me ship that ye' rather swim than wait for a boat?"  
"I thought It'd save us a goodbye", I replied, trying not to clench my fists.  
"Like I did back in Scotland?", he asked, his head slightly tilted. "Only this time, there wouldn't have been any goodbye because ye'd have been eaten by sharks before anyone could've yelled Man over Board."  
I shrugged again and turned around to continue staring at the island.

"I'd rather have this over with, Jack", I said after a while.  
"As ye wish, then", was all he replied, and I heard his steps as he walked across the deck, away from me.

I sighed. What had happened to the easiness, to the joy, to the knowledge that all would be all right? It must have happened at some point when I had discovered that there was more to my feeling for Jack than a passing fancy for someone exciting and new. Somewhere along the line, I had seriously fallen in love, that much I knew now. Because it hurt so much, thinking of never seeing him again. But what could I do? I certainly wouldn't beg Jack to keep me. I would not press myself upon him in such a manner; I'd rather have him remember me fondly than look upon me with annoyance.

And so I stood there, preparing myself, or trying to prepare myself for the journey home, the dive into the gulley, and the return into a time and a reality I had come to loathe in the past few months.

_And it's whispered that soon  
If we all call the tune  
Then the piper will lead us to reason.  
And a new day will dawn  
For those who stand long  
And the forests will echo with laughter._

Behind me, I heard Mr Gibbs as he walked up to Jack. I heard him mention my name, softly, he was almost whispering to Jack, but for some reason I felt compelled to eavesdrop and held my breath. I couldn't understand every word, sometimes a wave sloshing against the ship's hull drowned out a few words, but I listened, nonetheless.

"Frances is really going?"  
"She is, Mr Gibbs. If ye'd be so kind as to ready a longboat. I'm ..... and so is she, I believe."  
"Ye don't mean to let her go like that? ..... us all. You surely ....."  
"Mr Gibbs. If she stays or not is ..... her decision to make. Not mine, not yours, and not the crew's."  
"Jack."  
"What?"  
"You can't let ..... like her just go. She's ....."  
"And what's it to you?"  
"Nothing. People ..... unhappy because of selfish pride is none of my business, Captain."  
"Will you please ex......"  
"Will ye listen?"  
"Maybe."

"One sentence, Jack. I remember you telling me years ago, in that bar in Tortuga..."  
"There are a lot of bars in Tortuga, Mr Gibbs."  
"Aye, and whores in all of them. And yet ye told me that night after ..... how you could never love a woman, because no woman could ever be as you want her."  
"So?"  
"You don't remember?"  
"I don't remember ...... in Tortuga, Mr ...... "  
"But you said if ...... Jack Sparrow could fall in love with, then she had ..... That's what you said. Laugh like a whore, love like a lady, you said. Drink like a pirate, and sing like an angel."

I must admit I sidled a little closer to the conversation. Had I heard that right? But neither Jack nor Gibbs said anymore, and I just held my breath and waited. When still nothing more happened, I rested my eyes on the bow wave again. Only that there was no bow wave, because we had already dropped anchor. I imagined there being one, and realised at the same moment that someone had stepped beside me.  
_  
If there's a bustle in your hedgerow  
Don't be alarmed now,  
It's just a spring clean for the may queen.  
Yes, there are two paths you can go by  
But in the long run  
There's still time to change the road you're on.  
And it makes me wonder.  
_  
"Frances", Jack said.  
"Aye."  
"Are ye sure, what with going home?"  
"Fairly", I replied, and felt my heart banking so hard I was sure he could hear it. I cursed myself and told me to keep my nerves. "Why do you ask?"  
"Because", he said, and looked across the railing at the Island again. "Because. Because I wondered."  
"About what?"  
He was silent for a while before replying. "About what ye miss about... there. What ye miss when ye are here."  
"I miss a lot." And I thought hard."I miss the comfort. Hot baths. Clean water from a tap. Dentistry. Chocolate. Whisky. My friends."

Another long silence followed before he took my shoulder and turned me around to face him.  
"And is there something you shall miss when ye go?"  
Should I lie? Or should I tell him the truth? But maybe, just maybe, telling him the truth would make him understand why I had to go. He would understand, I was sure.  
"Yes", I said. "I shall miss the sea, the sounds of a ship, the feeling of waves. I shall miss that bloody bunch of scurvy-bitten scallywags, and I shall miss the rum."  
"The rum?"  
"Aye, the rum too."  
"Nothing else?"

_Your head is humming and it won't go  
In case you don't know,  
The pipers calling you to join him,  
Dear lady, can you hear the wind blow,  
And did you know  
Your stairway lies on the whispering wind.  
_  
I forced myself to look at him. "Something else, aye." I took a deep breath. "I shall miss you, Captain Jack Sparrow."  
He didn't reply. His facial expression changed, though. I couldn't even say in what way. He just suddenly looked at me in a different way. Softer. His eyes were softer. He blinked a few times.  
I took another breath and looked at the Island again. "I'd thank you for the longboat, Captain. I'd like to be on my way. Saying goodbye always hurts. I'd like to have it over with."  
He didn't reply for yet another wile before he asked, in a very low voice: "Is there a way to make ye stay so ye wouldn't have to say goodbye?"  
Holding my breath, I didn't dare to turn around. When I had finally found my voice again, I asked: "Would you want me to?"

Then I looked at him.  
He looked at me, then past me at something, or someone, behind me. Then his eyes darted this way and that, but finally, he looked at me again. "Aye."  
My knees were weak and my fingers trembling, as was my voice. Weak and trembling. I hated myself for it, because it sounded like a plea, but I had no control over my voice anymore. "Then just say so, Jack."  
He looked at me, after a long while in which his mouth worked and his eyes darted around, and finally said in a low voice: "Don't go, Frances."

I couldn't reply, I trusted neither my voice nor my feelings anymore. Was this happening? Was I dreaming?

"Why?", I finally managed to whisper.  
"'Cause you're the one woman that is beyond comparison. The one who is like no one else ever could be. The one who laughs like a whore and loves like a lady."  
I managed to look up into his face. A faint smile lay on his face, reaching his eyes, softening them even more. I felt my heart race so fast that I wasn't sure how long it would make it before it would stumble and burst.  
Jack put a finger under my chin. "Drinks like a pirate", he went on with a faint smirk and I had to smile as well.  
"And sings like an angel?"  
"Aye."  
I licked my lips and thought about the song that had been going round in my head the whole time. I hummed the melody, and Jack cautiously began to smile. He took my arm, and walked me across the deck. I still didn't quite believe what was happening, not before we stopped at the helm and he turned me around so we both looked across the stern of the ship at the moon hanging in the sky and casting a silver band of light onto the still and peaceful sea.

_"And as we wind on down the road  
Our shadows taller than our soul.  
There walks a lady we all know"_

Jack smiled and tilted his head as he listened. I on my part kept staring at the reflection of moonlight upon the water as I sung.  
_  
"Who shines white light and wants to show  
How everything still turns to gold.  
And if you listen very hard  
The tune will come to you at last."_

Here he turned around to look at him, and he took my hand, the smile gone from his face. He leaned closer.  
_  
"When all are one and one is all  
To be a rock and not to roll."_

I closed my eyes.  
_  
"And she's buying a stairway to heaven..."_

And felt his lips on mine.


End file.
